Which online bookstore founded by Jeff Bezos launched on the web in 1995? Amazon. The company opened its online bookstore to the public on July 16, 1995, beginning with books sold through the World Wide Web.
Jeff Bezos founded the business in Bellevue, Washington, on July 5, 1994. Its original corporate name was Cadabra, but he changed it to Amazon later that year. The name evoked the world’s largest river and matched his ambition to build the world’s largest bookstore. Bezos chose books because they offered enormous selection, steady demand, and relatively straightforward shipping.
Amazon’s first catalog was digital rather than physical: customers could search a much larger selection than a typical local shop could display. The company soon expanded beyond books, adding music and video in 1998 and many other product categories afterward. A common mix-up is confusing Amazon’s 1994 founding date with its 1995 public web launch; both dates are correct but describe different milestones.